September 30, 2005

Only three works in progress! That's progress! Well, in my effort to find clarity (to find serenity?).

The circle sweater's moving along. The Russian shawl is, too... I've nearly half the border done. And the sock (which I've started at least three times, and I think four or five) is progressing. So, excellent.

I've also finished the basset sweater and two small hats. And I also sewed a zipper into a hoodie sweater I finished over the summer, although I think I need to sew it a bit more securely.

This evening I saw Serenity. And it was awesome. Parts I expected, others I didn't, parts I expected part of but not all of. Just totally fun. Well, not totally. But the not fun parts were fun, too.

The circle sweater is nearing completion. Well, the body, at least. I took it off needles to measure it last night, and it's 33" diameter. As it's supposed to be 35" diameter, with an inch or so border, it's now time to add in a bit of boucle to give it a little something extra at the edge.

And then sleeves. Sigh.

I'm a bit disturbed, looking at this picture, by the fact that it's kind of obvious where I switched skeins of yarn. That's not quite cool. I can't really see it in real life, though; I think it's just that the camera and the flash pull out some colors more than others. Or at least, so I hope.

September 28, 2005

There's still not all that much new to say about knitting, though I've been steadily working on the three (only!) projects I've got going. I just did three more rows of the circle sweater while watching the season premiere of Veronica Mars. Only three! I'm not sure if that's just because the rows are so long it took an hour to knit them, or if it's because VM rocks and thus I was distracted and slow, and thus it took an hour to knit them.

Although, actually, this episode of VM was less... tight, I guess, than the best of last season. But still, two good mysteries. Lots of intrigue beyond that. Cool folk back around. Yay!

Taking a picture of the circle is just silly now, because it's... just a big circle, like the last picture, but bigger. I have, though made some more progress on the Orenburg shawl. There's still a ton to be done, but, well, there you go. I've done 11 (I think) points for the edging. There need to be 34 of them. Hey, that's almost a third through. Not bad. I'm knitting much more loosely this time through the shawl. I'm not sure what exactly that means, other than that this is going to be HUGE. Beautiful, if I don't mess it up, but HUGE.

That might sound like an ominous title, but I think things are definitely improving here at carbohydrate central. Spud is still mildly affronted, and still doesn't want too much to do with the new guy. Ziti keeps on being cute and charming. He went to the vet for the first time (probably, mostly because he was completely calm until the poking began, as if he had no expectation of pain or discomfort) and got a clean bill of health, and much love from everyone there. He's apparently a bit older than I thought, more like 6-7 months. Which means he's losing a certain part(s?) of his anatomy in a few weeks.

Anyway. I think the swatting is, oddly, a good sign, as it suggests they'll actually interact, and not just walk by each other in annoyance. And Ziti's flopping down in front of Spud, so he's clearly not going to challenge Spud's dominance, even if he's got far more energy and probably could. Of course, this probably has something to do with the fact that Spud weighs more than twice as much as Ziti, but still.

And just, again with the cute. He's a good little guy, I think. Except he has to stop waking me up in the middle of the night. That'll get tiring really quickly. Well, literally. I suppose I mean, that'll get tiresome really quickly.

September 26, 2005

I managed to restrain myself from starting a new knitting project last week, when I started talking about my plan for an evil Sea Inside inspired sweater. It's still next, but, damn it, I'm going to finish something else first.

Instead, I've been good. Of an evening, when I'm watching TV (or, more often, DVDs... currently I've run through the first season of MI-5, which I enjoyed enough to immediately put the second season on my netflix list, am slowly working through season two of Deep Space Nine, and last night started on the fifth season of the Sopranos [appropriate, what with Ziti, who's currently pissing off Spud by sprawling next to me and purring, and who totally pissed him off by daring to jump up on my bed last night; Ziti ended up "winning," because Spud's a doofus and wouldn't come up while Z was there {sigh}, and instead prowled around groaning/growling/whining/moaning, and thus ensured that I'd be sleep-deprived today]), I've been first working on the circle sweater. I've been trying to do three rows a night, which takes increasingly forever, as I'm now at more than 320 stitches per row. After that I'm bored, so I'm making myself work on either the sock or the Orenburg shawl, or both for a little while. It's working, and I'm making progress.

The same seems to be true of the work I should be doing, that is writing. I'm finally making good progress on revising my book manuscript (yay), even if it's still a little slow. And right now I'm trying to finish up revisions on a grant proposal (well, I'll do one last pass on Wednesday before sending it off [or, rather, uploading it]). And then I'll go into the office to work on tomorrow's class. All in good order seems to be the way to get crap done.

Which makes for boring blogging, but there it is. (Hmmm... can you tell I've recently watched part of Amadeus?)

September 25, 2005

Spud has a buddy. Well, I hope. At the moment, he's deeply uncertain about this small black thing who's slinking around his house. Love is not yet in the air. Instead, everywhere I look around there's some posturing and hissing and growling.

One of my colleagues and his wife found two kittens that had been abandoned near their house. They've been keeping them for a while, but their older cat isn't dealing well with interlopers. So I offered to take one (my house isn't big enough to be a three cat household... I'm even a bit wary about the two cat thing). So, here's the new guy.

He came with the name Teddy. That can be one of his names. But I think he's also going to be known as Ziti. I've been wanting to name a pet that since the first season of the Sopranos, just for the possibility of saying, "what, no f***ing ziti?!"

September 24, 2005

So, it turns out that my annoying story wasn't over when I posted yesterday. Amazing! Truthfully, though, I'm basically annoyed out, so at this point I'm just throwing my hands up in disbelief.

I got home last night after going out to the bar I generally hang out at on Friday nights (and where I repeated my rant about delivery... oh, and where I was extra annoyed because I'd stopped to get cash and the ATM at my bank was broken so I couldn't, and because I got there and realized I'd left my bike lock at home, so had to go home and get it and then return to the bar) and noticed that the driver of the delivery truck had tried to call while I was out. Hmmm, I thought, but proceeded to ignore the situation for the sake of my sanity.

And then this morning I got a call from the delivery company saying, chirpily, oh, gosh, we just happen to have the item you ordered sitting her on our dock! Whee! When do you want us to deliver it! Smiley happy hearts and flowers! We didn't mess up! Giggle! When you called last night and asked if it we'd messed up and we said, no, gosh, we were apparently just flat out wrong!!!

Well, actually, not quite, because admitting they messed up is apparently too grown up for them.

My response? I've already canceled the order, so, no.

Actually, I feel a little bad, because I did kind of swear at the woman on the other end of the line. Well, not at her, but I did use an obscenity when I noted that her company had fucked me around all week and I didn't really want to deal with them again. Even though I'll have to, if the damn bed every shows up.

September 23, 2005

I am enormously fucking annoyed right now. And I must be profane. Sorry if that offends, but, crap, I've just had to deal with the suckfest of annoyance that is the Williams Sonoma company (and, particularly their furniture branches).

OK, first, I am not an enormous consumer. The last piece of furniture I bought (before my annoyance saga begins) was two years ago, and that was a futon. Then a year before that, I bought a little wicker table and two chairs. Then probably five years before that, a sofa bed.

And although I do have plenty of clothes, I admit, a very high percentage of them come from Target. And virtually everything else (and even, most often, the Target stuff, too) I bought on sale. I do have a fair collection of kitchen implements, but I actually add to that very slowly. I buy far fewer books than I used to, now that I live in a place with a good public library. Although I went through a DVD buying phase, I don't do that too often any more. I did splurge on an iPod last year, and that I don't regret at all, because it's fantastic and improves my life.

So what I'm saying is, I'm not a huge buyer (oh, wait, except recently of yarn, but that not only supplies clothing or gifts, but is a hobby, too). I buy deliberately, more often than not.

Earlier this summer, I saw a bed (that is, a headboard/footboard) for sale in the Pottery Barn catalog that I liked, and was (being on sale) reasonably priced. Since I'd been sort of thinking of getting a bed for a while, I ordered it.

Now, when you order furniture, you get a little "your order has shipped" notice, even though it might take weeks for it to actually get to you. But once that little "your order has shipped" notice gets published on line, that's as far as web-based customer service will get you... it never changes.

So I was initially pleasantly surprised when I got a call from a Denver delivery company in mid-late July to set up a time for a home delivery. And the day of the delivery, I stripped the bed, and washed the bed skirt, and moved the mattress and boxspring out of the bedroom to make room, and folded up the cheapo frame that came with the mattress 9 years ago and stuck it in my shed.

And then, towards the end of my four hour delivery window, the truck shows up, and the guys bring in... a frame. A long, thin box. That's it.

What?

So I call the delivery company and they confirm that that's all they have. And I call Pottery Barn and they say, oh, gosh, the bed was actually on back order, so it'll still be a few weeks.

The hell?

I complained about having to stay home for a delivery twice for one bed (and, granted, I can and often do work at home, but I don't always want to do so, and often when I can't leave is exactly when I want to), and they offered to reimburse me for delivery charges. Fair enough.

Shortly thereafter, I saw a file cabinet in the West Elm (another Williams Sonoma company) catalog that I quite liked, and was nice looking and reasonable. Again, I've been thinking of getting one for a while now (I've actually currently got a couple of hanging file folder frames just sitting on the floor), so I ordered it. Same thing with the web notification.

Now, while waiting for that, I started to wonder what was up with the bed, since time kept passing and I kept not getting the bed.

Oh, and did I mention that they charged me for it back in early July???

So I emailed their customer service team, since I had no desire to sit on hold, and the website told me nothing. And they said they'd forward the message to the furniture delivery people who would contact me.

No one contacted me.

After a couple more weeks, I sent another, more annoyed email, noting that the fact that they'd had my money for months, while I still had no bed, was yet more annoying, and the fact that they had an email service option that didn't do shit was downright pissing me off. So the offered to refund the money until the bed comes (when? who the fuck knows, really... I'd just cancel the whole thing, except that now I've got this frame sitting on the floor of my spare room). OK, not ideal, but there you go.

So then this week I get a call from the same Denver delivery company to schedule yet another delivery, this time of the file cabinet. First, they give you a day for the delivery a few days ahead of time, and then a four hour window the day before. Sort of annoying to begin with.

I was initially set up for a Wednesday delivery, 1:30-5:30. Wednesday morning, I get a call telling me they just can't make it that day, and can I accept delivery on Friday.

(Man, I'm thinking, what if I had an office job???)

So, yeah, whatever, OK. Initially, I was told I'd get my delivery between 11-3. Then at 10:40 or so, I got a call telling me they were running late, and it'd actually be between 12-4. Aggravation was mounting.

The truck pulls up before 4, yes, it's true.

AND IT'S THE WRONG FUCKING THING. Not a file cabinet, but an entertainment system cabinet, or something.

OH MY GOD.

I refused delivery, called the Denver company, who insisted that it wasn't their fault. Called West Elm, who offered no explanation, and instead wanted to know if I wanted a replacement "expedited" to me. "What does 'expedited' mean?" I asked. Sent in a week or so, with the same delivery people.

No. NO. NOOOOOO.

Yeah, I'm writing a serious long letter of complaint to the president of Williams Sonoma. Chuck, I think his name is. I'm sure he's a nice man, and he's obviously got good taste. But at this moment, I can't stand his company.

September 21, 2005

OK, at this point I only have three projects going. The circle sweater, which is still going to be lovely but is starting to bore me a little. The sock, which is fine, but seems good to keep as a knitting in public project. And the Russian shawl, which I'm just not that into at the moment, for some reason. I think that frogging what I had did end up hurting a bit more than would be ideal.

So I think I need to at least start planning out my next project. Which is, in some ways, a mildly embarrassing one.

At some point last spring I went to see the Spanish film The Sea Inside about, essentially, assisted suicide. It was deeply moving, and very thought provoking in rather uncomfortable ways. In all seriousness, it was a fine film, with amazing performances that really stuck with me.

But as I was watching, I kept getting distracted from all the seriousness (which was also leavened with humor, it's not like it was an enormous sob-fest... and, actually, I don't think I'd find it as moving if it had been) by the gorgeous sweaters various characters wore.

The one that I liked best is pictured here and again here. It's got a wide panel of a repeated cable pattern, with a wide ribbing for sides and sleeves. I picked up some nice camel-colored wool last year that I haven't yet used, and I think I'm going to emulate this sweater in it. I may try a trickier cable pattern... I've got that Harmony book of aran patterns, and will play around with things from it. And I'm also trying to decide if there should be any shaping at the waist, or if the ribbing at the sides will be enough.

I know I should keep going with one of the things I'm already working on, but I just need the fun of figuring out something new!

September 20, 2005

I'm suddenly wondering why music often runs on basically an academic schedule. I mean, orchestra seasons tend to start in fall and end in spring; opera, too, often, and various other things. Why? why not a calendar year? Why not the winter off? Hmmm.

But amateur music does that, too. I've been playing with a community band since moving here four years ago, and enjoying it quite a bit. And rehearsals run basically a slightly short academic year. I missed the first rehearsal of the year last week, but went last night. We actually sounded really good, I thought, which was a pleasant surprise.

I've been playing clarinet since the fourth grade... so, what, since 1980? Holy crap. I'm not a bad player, but only because I don't practice. Wait, that's not quite it. For someone who doesn't practice very much, I'm not a bad player. I really ought to practice, because it's good in a lot of ways.

But the really fun part of playing music is playing in a group, as far as I'm concerned. There's really nothing like it, the feeling of a bunch of people coming together to make something that's a big whole. It's true in a big group, like an orchestra, where it's just amazing that so many parts come together. And it's true in a small group like a quintet, where it's fewer parts but you're all listening and thinking about what everyone else is doing in a much more basic way, since there's no conductor.

Four years ago, when I first moved here, I started playing with this community band. I went to the first rehearsal of the year and had such a good time. I hadn't played with a group in a year, and really hadn't played all that much (because of that pesky not practicing much thing). But I sounded pretty good, and got to play some fun, rather showy clarinet parts, and just had a great time. And I drove home from the rehearsal feeling really content with where I was, with the job I'd just started, with the music, with the place. Just, good.

Of course, unfortunately, that was the night of September 10. So the good mood was rather shattered rather quickly (on such an unbelievably beautiful day, too). But even then, the satisfaction with that part of things managed to linger, just a little.